LONDON — Many is the Canadian chef de mission who has sat grimly on a dais at the midpoint of an Olympic Games, armed with statistics, flanked by supportive colleagues all nodding in agreement as he (or she) has painted the obligatory happy face on a set of meagre results.

Then there is Mark Tewksbury.

From the moment the London Olympic program of events was released — with rowing in the front half of the schedule, instead of the back — the Canadian swimming hero of the Barcelona Games must have had a pretty good hunch he wasn’t going to have to preside over a damage control session this time.

Canadian rowers are like death and taxes, only in a good way. You can count on them to produce medals, so there wasn’t much fear that an angst-filled nation would be into Day 8 of the Games, as happened in Beijing four years ago, before its Olympic team’s medal count budged off zero.

What he didn’t know was that the rowers could have taken the week off, and it still would have been a good opening seven days for the Tewksbury administration.

It began with two pairs of synchronized divers: the first, Jennifer Abel and Émilie Heymans, who were supposed to have a chance, the second, Roseline Filion and Meaghan Benfeito, not so much. Then, out of nowhere, a lightly-regarded judoka, Antoine Valois-Fortier. Then a female weightlifter, Christine Girard, who had just missed out in Beijing. A star-crossed swimmer, Brent Hayden, who was just about down to his final shot at glory in his third Olympics.

In among all those bronze medals, the rowers, of course, contributed the silver — first the men’s then the women’s eights stroking to second-place finishes in the magnificent races that always seem to define a regatta. Those seven medals have Canada tied for 11th in the overall standings.

“I didn’t take anything for granted (with the rowers), I didn’t know how anything was going to turn out, because none of us has a crystal ball,” Tewksbury said Friday afternoon.

“But what we all said was that we could really use a dark horse, and our judoka really did that, he went out there and knocked off some big names and really competed with passion — and when we did the playback that night (in the village) people were really electrified.

“There was such a feeling of, ‘Listen, this is the Olympics, anything can happen, but you’ve got to be in the game.”

As Tewksbury spoke, he was headed to the Olympic Stadium to watch shot putter Dylan Armstrong try for a medal, with a realistic chance, although he would finish fifth. On Saturday, he would be at the pool to watch Beijing bronze medallist Ryan Cochrane try to match or exceed that performance in the 1,500-metre freestyle.

“It’s just been a great week, for so many reasons,” Tewksbury said. “Part of the job is based on the team’s performance, obviously, so seven medals is a great start. But what’s exciting is that they’re in five different sports, so the feeling is very broad, and it just gives every sport the feeling that ‘We want to be on that board.’

“Even some of our losses, like Milos (Raonic) setting the record for the longest tennis match in Olympic history, or the badminton team — even though the circumstances were quite controversial — it’s just, we’re popping all over the place.”

The women's gymnastics team made the final for the first time in a non-boycotted Games — finishing fifth — while the women's basketball team booked its first spot in a quarter-final and the women's soccer team advanced to the semifinals.

If rowing was the venue that was expected to deliver results, no one really knew what to expect at the other headliner of the opening week: swimming.

In many ways, the Canadian results have been incrementally better, but with only one medal to date: Hayden’s sensational bronze, considerably against the odds.

“I was there for Brent, and I will be there for Ryan,” said Tewksbury. “I had kind of promised Brent I would be there for his semifinal and final, and I was so glad I was. It caught me off guard how emotional it was.”

“The meet itself has been such a difficult event,” Swimming Canada CEO and national coach Pierre Lafontaine said Friday.

“I think we’ve seen some great performances, a lot of good ones and a couple that were disappointing. But are we going in the right direction? I can tell you I can’t remember this many (Canadian swimmers in) finals and semifinals, so many night swims.

“If it’s only medals you’re talking about, then we had an amazing, fantastic swim by Brent Hayden that just showed how tough it is right now — a few hundredths of a second, and he’d have been sixth — and with Ryan’s swim coming up (Saturday), you never know what happens.

“It’ll be a real wagon race with five or six guys that all have a chance, but he’s in a good place, and I love his character and his professionalism, so I know he’s ready.”

The team — that is, the entire Canadian contingent — got off to a fast enough start in the medal standings that “it maybe smoothed the road a little bit for everyone,” Lafontaine said, “but there has been an amazing Canadian team environment among all the athletes in the village, and I think Mark and Sylvie (Frechette, the assistant chef) have done a great job with that.”

“It was great to get Émilie and Jennifer on the board, that instantly took pressure off the team,” Tewksbury said, “but then to get three medals on Day 4, it was like, we’re not just on the board, we’re really out of the gate.

“I have made myself very scarce after opening ceremony, because it’s about the athletes. I want it for them so badly. Lots doesn’t go as everybody hopes, but what I’m proud of is that the people who haven’t gone as far as they wanted have bounced right back and gone out and supported our other athletes, so the mood has been spectacular.”

Saturday, Tewksbury does his mid-Games news conference, and for a change, there will be no sharks circling.

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Canada's hopes still high at Olympics, 'popping all over the place'

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